Absorbent articles for personal hygiene, such as disposable diapers for infants, training pants for toddlers, adult incontinence undergarments, and/or sanitary napkins are designed to absorb and contain body exudates, in particular large quantities of urine or menses. These absorbent articles comprise several layers providing different functions, for example, a topsheet, a backsheet, and an absorbent core disposed between the topsheet and the backsheet, among other layers.
The function of the absorbent core is to absorb and retain the exudates for a prolonged amount of time, for example, overnight for a diaper, minimize re-wet to keep the wearer dry, and avoid soiling of clothes or bed sheets. The majority of currently marketed absorbent articles comprise as absorbent material which is a blend of comminuted wood pulp with superabsorbent polymers (SAP) in particulate form, also called absorbent gelling materials (AGM). Absorbent articles having a core consisting essentially of SAP as absorbent material (so called “airfelt-free” cores) have also been proposed but are less common than traditional mixed cores.
Some absorbent articles may typically comprise leg cuffs which provide improved containment of liquids and other body exudates. Leg cuffs may also be referred to as leg bands, side flaps, barrier cuffs, or elastic cuffs. Usually, each leg cuff comprises one or more elastic strings or elements comprised in the chassis of the diaper, for example, between the topsheet and backsheet in the area of the leg openings to provide an effective seal while the absorbent article is in use. These elasticized elements which are substantially planar with the chassis of the absorbent article will be referred to herein as gasketing cuffs. It is also usual for the leg cuffs to comprise raised elasticized flaps, herein referred to as barrier leg cuffs, which improve the containment of fluid in the leg-torso joint regions.
Absorbent articles generally have a high absorbent capacity and the absorbent core may expand several times its weight and volume. These increases may cause the absorbent articles to sag in the crotch region as they become saturated with liquid, which may cause the barrier leg cuffs to partially lose contact with the wearer's skin. This may lead to a loss of functionality of the barrier leg cuffs, with the increased possibly of leakage.
Further, traditional Adult Incontinence products are thick, bulky, and noticeable to the consumer while wearing. Additionally, many Adult Incontinence products are inherently stiff due to their material composition and geometry. Developing thin and flexible products presents the unique challenge to maintain, or increase, the product's structural properties during use to ensure the product is shape stable. The term “shape stable” refers to the product's ability to maintain or recover its shape during wear, and maximize area coverage and ultimately protection from leakage. This challenge is unique in that this structural requirement breaks the traditional paradigm faced today for maintaining shape stability, throughout use, in other absorbent technologies. Traditional technologies start with significantly higher dry/unused structural properties compared to its wet/used properties, due to the decay of integrity during use. As a result of this degradation, the higher properties at a dry/unused state are used a compensation mechanism to deliver the shape stability required for protection throughout product use, resulting in a stiff product.
Although various solutions to this problem have been proposed, the field can benefit from additional channel and/or pocket configurations that improved leakage prevention in absorbent articles.